Nightmares
by Jon Chauttock
Summary: After the Team gets in a fight with Scarecrow, Wally breathes in fear gas, and bad, bad things happen. Rated M for dark themes. Just a bit of after-midnight inspiration. Post-Season 2, but Zatanna never left the Team, Wally never died, and Bart stayed as Impulse.
1. The Things We Can't Face - Wally

Terror.

Guilt.

Anger.

Shame.

If I hadn't been a science genius, this would never have happened.

If I had thought about the possible consequences of my actions, this would never have happened.

If I had died during the experiment, this would never have happened.

I sort of wish that I _had_ died.

It would have been better than the horrific reality that currently unfolds in front of my eyes.

Alien spaceships fly above me, firing disintegration rays that annihilate anybody they touch.

There are very few people left for them to touch.

No heroes remain left to fight.

Our celestial defenses, comprised of seven of our strongest fighters, were swatted aside like flies.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, both Green Lanterns, Hawkgirl, and Captain Marvel, and they swatted them aside without even a thought.

The rest of the League fell quickly. We lost Green Arrow and Doctor Fate within moments of the aliens landing. Hawkman, Black Canary, and Captain Atom were lost soon after.

Batman, Flash, and Red Tornado were the last to fall. I watched my uncle die giving his life to save Batman, and yet Batman fell less than a minute after. Every single member of the Justice League was taken out in less than ten minutes.

Aqualad dispatched us throughout the world soon after that, but once we located the mothership, we all ended up in the exact same place - Central City.

Of course it would be my hometown.

We lost Blue Beetle, Wonder Girl, Lagoon Boy, and Superboy within seconds of reaching the mothership. We fought well, better than we ever had before as a unit, and yet after even less time, we met the exact same fate as the League.

Aqualad had given his life protecting Artemis. She was still alive and fighting, but she was one of the few. Losing Miss Martian hurt the worst - she was the glue that held us together, and not just thought the mind link.

After three minutes, only Artemis, Impulse, Nightwing, Zatanna and I remained fighting. The others were all gone.

We tried to form some sort of plan, but we were so clouded by grief that we could barely even think, and we knew there were only more deaths coming.

Then Zatanna got shot.

Artemis screamed, Impulse ran, and Nightwing dropped to his knees.

And I stood there, just watching it all, and that was how I saw the protégé of the Batman give up.

"End this, please. I can't handle it anymore. I'm not like Bruce, I can't just shrug off these losses. End it."

The aliens obliged him, and I watched my best friend disintegrate into nothing.

Bart suddenly reappeared, running at top speed towards the mothership. He had picked up the tactic from watching Flash use it in the League's famous battle against the Brainiac-Luthor monster.

He was shot before he got anywhere near it.

Artemis and I were the only ones left fighting. She fired her bow, and I ran, annihilating everything I could touch. These aliens didn't deserve to live, and we both knew it. They had taken everything from us - everything we had, everything we knew, everything we loved - except each other. And we both knew that it was only a matter of time before one of us was lost too.

I heard a scream, and I stopped dead in my tracks, whirling around to see Artemis, broken bow on the ground next to her, with an alien's gun held to her head.

"I love you, Wally!" And then she was gone.

I run. I run without knowing where I'm going or why I'm going there. Screams tear from my throat, but I don't even know that I'm making a sound. The aliens have taken everything from me, and I'm too broken to even continue fighting. So I run, because it's the only thing I still know.

That morning, I had woken up with Artemis in bed next to me, snuggled close to me like she always was. I had smiled and slowly slipped out of bed, going to make breakfast for the two of us.

I surprised her with breakfast in bed - scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, and orange juice. She smiled and kissed me, her messy, golden hair down and her gray eyes shining.

She ate it with me snuggled next to her while we watched the morning cartoons, laughing at every childish thing that we had used to love as children. She may have not had much of a childhood, but she loved them all the same, just as every other child did. It was a Saturday, so we just stayed in that morning, cuddling and laughing.

And then we got Aqualad's alert, and everything went to shit.

I look up at the sky, still amazed that it's only two in the afternoon. The skies are red and black from the fire and smoke, and Earth looks like it's descended into the pits of hell.

I keep running. I've given up, and I don't know where I'm supposed to go. I've watched all of my friends die, including my best friend, and I've watched my girlfriend get shot in cold blood by an alien. I have nowhere to run and nobody to run to, and I'm broken.

Artemis had been my everything, and I'm ashamed to admit to myself that I can't even think about the death of anybody else. I've watched Dick Grayson, my best friend, disintegrate into nothing. I hadn't personally been there for the death of my uncle, but I've watched it. I've seen my cousin get shot, and I can't think about anything but Artemis.

The way she looked with her hair down. The way her eyes would shine when I made a funny joke, even though she pretended that it wasn't funny. The way that she would wake up in the middle of the night and snuggle even closer to me, never knowing that she was waking me up. I would just smile to myself and hug her a little tighter, and she would never even notice. I was never going to have that again.

And then suddenly the scene changes. I'm not running anymore, but I don't even notice that as I look around.

I see the pile of ash that is Earth, and I see everybody that I love lying on it.

Connor and M'gann, next to each other through the end, lying in pools of blood.

Bart and Barry with cuts and bruises all over their tortured bodies.

Kaldur, missing an arm, slowly bleeding out into the ash.

And then I reach the bottom of the giant pile of rubble I've been looking up at, and I look into the eyes of Dick Grayson.

"Why didn't you save us, Wally? This is all your fault. You could have stopped this, but because you became Kid Flash, you brought the aliens here. You never should have performed that experiment. That was what brought them here. They've been traveling here since you did it, and now that they're here, everybody that you care about lies dead or dying on a pile of ash and rubble. Wally, if you hadn't done this, you could have saved us." He nods at me. "You could have saved her."

His eyes close, and I realize that there's one face I haven't seen yet.

I look down at the broken body in my arms to see the face of Artemis Crock.

Her once-beautiful hair is covered in ash and blood, and her uniform is in shreds. There are cuts all over her, and she looks like she's taken a bath in blood. There are bruises all along her face, her neck, and the rest of her body.

"Who... why?"

"Well, you, of course, Mr. West."

I look over to see the face of Vandal Savage.

"Of course you're here. You're going to live through this."

"Indeed I am. But that's not the important thing right now. Mr. West, Mr. Grayson was telling the truth. The aliens were attracted to this planet by your experiment, and this is what happened. All of your friends are dead, and it's all. Your. Fault."

I drop to my knees and scream.

"And now, Mr. West, that you have seen what you've done to your loved ones, you may join them."

I nod.

I deserve this.

I really do.

It's The Exercise all over again, but this time it's for real, and it's my fault.

I look at Savage.

"I'm ready to die now."

 **I promise, this will all make sense eventually. The story is called "Nightmares" for a reason...**

 **Reviews make me happy. Please make me happy.**

 **\- JT**


	2. Sacrifice - Artemis

Scarecrow is a nasty villain.

I've known that since the day Dick told me the story of the first time he had fought the Gotham hoodlum, and while I'm ashamed to admit this, the story gave me nightmares for weeks.

Batman had been off-world with Martian Manhunter trying to stop the civil war between the green and white Martians - something he failed to do - so Dick had been left to cover the city. And when Scarecrow broke out of Arkham, Dick called in Wally as backup.

They eventually took him down, but they both breathed in fear gas in the process. Apparently it wasn't enough to start them panicking on the spot, but their nightmares lasted for weeks. And they were violent. Whenever one of them would stay over at the Cave, I could hear them screaming, horrified at the vibrant images they were being forced to see.

I remember the one night that Dick had fallen asleep on the couch. I couldn't sleep, so I came out into the main area of the Cave, and I heard the screaming. The names were names I knew - Barbara. Tim. Bruce. Wally. I listened as he screamed out the names of every single person he loved, as if watching them die, one by one. He woke up screaming, and he sat next to me for hours, shaking in fear.

So when Batman calls us to the mission briefing room and informs us that Scarecrow has broken out of Arkham yet again, I try to keep a calm appearance. Batman's face hardens before telling us about the dangers of Scarecrow's fear gas, because most of the Team has never heard of it. "His fear gas induces hallucinations. Breathing in a minimal amount will just cause nightmares, but even those will last for weeks. Breathe in too much and you'll have painful hallucinations in which you can feel everything that's happening. Kid Flash, Nightwing, you've inhaled it before, which will make it far worse for you if you breathe in even the tiniest amount. Everybody wear your rebreathers going in, because you _cannot_ inhale any of this gas."

Fifteen minutes later, we hover over Gotham, and I'm trying not to panic. I have to appear calm, but I don't feel like it.

So when I stand in the middle of Gotham Bank, staring at the twisted face of one of the most horrific villains the Team has ever faced, I have to try not to scream. I start firing arrows, and they glance off him, useless. We have him outflanked, and yet we're all scared to attack. I can't see why, because we know that we have him beaten. At least, it feels like we do. So why won't anybody attack?

Superboy, as usual, throws the first punch. He knocks Scarecrow back into Cassie, who knocks him towards Jaime. He throws the villain into the ground, and then all hell breaks loose. Scarecrow leaps to his feet and throws a bomb into the ground, a brown gas spreading quickly from it throughout the Bank. Superboy, Wonder Girl, and Beast Boy quickly evacuate the rest of the people inside, and we go back to fight.

I remember a nightmare that I had the week before - Scarecrow had broken my rebreather while I was fighting him, and I breathed in fear gas. The scene suddenly switched to the League of Shadows headquarters, and I was staring into the eyes of my father.

He smiled. "I told you that you could never be a do-gooder, Artemis. It's time to switch sides." He laughed, and he punched me in the face. I sprawled to the ground, my face already bruising.

"Get up and fight," he commanded me with a smirk.

I tried, but before I could even stand up, he knocked me to the ground.

Suddenly, I was no longer inside the brain of my dream self, and I was now watching myself writh in pain on the ground. I woke up from that dream in a cold sweat, and it comes to me again during this fight. I'm not sure why.

Dick, Wally and I look at each other and nod. Wally charges straight at Scarecrow, Dick and I flanking him on each side. Scarecrow throws a punch at Wally, but it glances off of his fast-moving body. He quickly turns towards Dick, but he can't lay a hand on the acrobat. That's when I see my opportunity - with Scarecrow preoccupied by Dick, I run up behind him, planning to throw a punch at the back of his head.

At least, until his elbow whips backwards and breaks my rebreather.

He laughs maniacally and is gone within seconds. But he is no longer the priority.

"Wally, get her out of here!" Dick is screaming, a terrified look on his face.

I still haven't taken a breath, but I can only hold on for so long.

And then Wally takes off his rebreather and puts it on me.

My eyes light up in horror. Wally looks worried, but calm.

"Why are you doing this?" I ask him.

"My speedster system will filter out the gas at a faster pace. It's the logical choice."

"That's not true. It will work at the same pace, but you've already breathed it in before. It will affect you even worse." Dick is holding back tears by now, an unusual look for the next Batman.

He nods and takes a deep breath... and he drops to the ground, convulsing and screaming.

A scream tears itself from my mouth.

"Wally!"

 **The next chapter will have some major violence and gore coming to theaters near you from the inside of Wally's head.**

 **Reviews are nice. You guys are nice, right?**

 **\- JT**


	3. Visions, Part 1 - Wally

"I'm ready to die now."

Savage smiles. "Oh, as much as I would enjoy it, it's not my job to kill you."

The scene suddenly changes, and I'm in a dungeon.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire..." I mutter to myself. It's good to know that every horrible thing that I've just been forced to witness didn't actually happen, but my current situation hasn't improved by much. I hope that at least Artemis is alive now.

I hear the door to my cell open, and in walks Sportsmaster.

"Shit," I mutter under my breath, and then I put on a fake smile.

"Well if it isn't the Blonde Bastard himself! How's the family!"

He looks deadly serious, and that confuses me. Sportsmaster is usually calm, arrogant, and dismissive of my teammates and me, or he's in the middle of a fit of rage. This fits neither description, and that might be a major problem. I have no idea how to handle a serious Lawrence Crock.

"You know damn well how my family is, Kid Flash. You were the one who tore it apart, and now it's my turn to return the favor. I'm going to tear your precious Team apart by torturing you until you beg me for mercy. I'm going to make them watch as I snap your spine, and then I'll laugh as I cut through you with a knife - giving you a wound _almost_ deep enough to kill you. Doesn't that sound fun?"

I now know how to handle a serious Lawrence Crock. Or, at the very least, I know that a serious Lawrence Crock cannot be handled or even slowed down.

"Woah, Blondie. Calm down. What did I even do?"

He growls, a low, guttural sounds that gives me goosebumps. "You know exactly what you did."

"Actually, I have no clue."

"Try thinking harder."

I pretend to think for a second. "Nope, still nothing."

Cheshire strolls into the room, glaring at me with a hatred I've never seen before from her - or anyone.

"Mind if I help him remember, Father?"

"Down, Jade. I'll handle this."

"You haven't so far. It's my turn now."

She unsheathes her sword and cuts through my side, a deep cut that leaves me gasping for air and trying to hold back tears.

"Call his Team. They should get to see this."

Sportsmaster quickly hacks the Cave's security and starts a video call to the Team. I watch Dick answer and I see his eyes narrow.

"Sportsmaster. What do you and Cheshire want this time?"

"Only to show you an image of your friend." Sportsmaster turns the camera towards me, and I see Dick's eyes widen. The entire Team stands behind him now, and some of them gasp in shock. Others glare, which I don't understand.

Dick seems to finally process what he's seeing in the video camera, and he growls. "You can keep him. We don't want him anymore. Not after what he did." The Team stands behind him, every one of them nodding and scowling at me simultaneously.

I gasp. "Dick, what did I do?"

He glares at me some more, and then addresses Sportsmaster one more time. "Have fun killing him, and take as much time as you like. Nobody will arrive to stop you. I can promise you that."

Lawrence nods and ends the call.

Cheshire quickly stabs me in my other side with her sword, this time cutting even deeper, and I scream. Blood pours onto my now-shredded uniform, and I feel myself losing strength.

"What... did... I... do?" I can barely get the words out by now - the blood loss is beginning to affect my brain.

Sportsmaster growls. "Jade, go get her." She nods and leaves.

My eyes widen in fear. "Who exactly is 'her?'"

And then Jade enters the room again with a body in her arms, and everything clicks into place.

Artemis looks dead. Her Tigress uniform is in shreds, and she has blood all over her. I reach out to her, but Jade hands Artemis to her father and makes a quick cut on my palm, causing me to clench my fist and howl.

I open my hand to look at my new wound, deciding that it isn't any worse than the others I have suffered so far.

"Who... did that... to her?" I ask.

Sportsmaster slowly hands Artemis' broken body back to Jade, and he suddenly howls in anger and rushes at me. He punches me in the face, once... twice... a third time... and then a fourth, causing me to howl in pain for the second time in as many minutes.

He stomps on my newly wounded hand, then kicks me twice on each side of me, deliberately aiming for my sword wounds.

"You did it, you soulless bastard. You turned my daughter into this broken mess! _It's_ _all your fault_."

I scream. I know that I don't have muchh air left to breathe,but I no longer care. I scream anyway, because if I did this to the love of my life, I deserve death and so much worse. I deserve to rot in hell for the rest of eternity, and it makes me feel a little better to know that I'll get what I deserve.

"Why... why would I do this?"

"Shouldn't you be the one to tell us that?" Jade is the one answering me now, and she looks even angrier than her father.

Sportsmaster suddenly decides to call the Cave again, and I have no idea why.

Dick answers with a growl. "Is it done?"

"Not yet, but I thought that we would give you the choice of how we should finish him."

Dick laughs, a harsh, cruel sound that is far from his usual cackle.

"Isn't it obvious? Finish him the same way he finished Artemis. Stab him in the back."

Cheshire laughs. "With pleasure."

She walks over to my prone body and flips me over onto my back.

I see her raise her scythe far above her head, waiting to end my life with it...

"Jade!" I hear Sportsmaster scream. "As much as I want to be the one to end his life for what he's done, it isn't our job. He will pay, don't worry. He just has more pain to live through first.

Their laughter is the last thing I hear before everything goes black.

My nightmare is far from over.

 **Well, that was brutal.**

 **Reviews are fun. I hope you guys are fun.**

 **\- JT**


	4. Visions, Part 2 - Wally

**I FINALLY DID IT. AFTER ALMOST A YEAR, HERE IS YOUR NEXT CHAPTER OF NIGHTMARES.**

 **Wally**

I wake up and every cell in my body is on fire.

I can barely think through the pain. _"So this is what Sportsmaster meant by 'more pain coming,'"_ I manage to think to myself.

It's mind-numbingly painful. It's like every nerve in my body has been drowned in gasoline and was then lit on fire. I can't stand it.

I manage to look around, trying to ignore the pain I have to go through to get through it.

I'm in some sort of room or cell. There's a door, and a window, and I could walk out easily if I could manage to get up.

What could this pain possibly be coming from that my captor is confident enough in it that he's willing to leave one of the fastest people alive unguarded?

Whatever it is, it's working. I can't stand up.

And then somebody walks in. And everything makes a lot more sense.

"Hello, Wally," I hear Lex Luthor say. "Do you like your containment device? A little piece of equipment I picked up from Darkseid. It's a direct neural stimulator of your pain receptors. Every cell in your body probably feels like it's on fire right now. That's sort of the point."

"Why…" I can barely get the word out, and my voice sounds as raspy and weak as I feel.

"LexCorp has partnered with some people very interested in seeing how much pain different types of metagenes can withstand. We also brought the non-powered members of your team as a… control group. I cannot say they've fared as well."

"Show… me… my… friends…"

I can barely get the words out.

Lex smiles. "As you wish."

I feel the immense pain suddenly stop, but I still don't have the strength to move.

Two men come in and pick up my defenseless body and carry me into a much larger room than the one I had been in.

And I gasp in horror.

The first person I see is Conner. His wrist is being cut with the blade of a knife that's glowing green, held by one of Luthor's cronies. I know the reason it's glowing green isn't because it's radioactive. That's Kryptonite if I've ever seen it.

He's bleeding all over the place. Both wrists are cut, and his right arm has turned entirely red because of the blood that it's soaked in. His left leg is at an awful, unnatural angle. It's broken. His right leg isn't in much better shape. His left arm looks okay compared to the rest of his body, and his left wrist is slit. That's a pretty accurate representation of what he looks like.

I can barely bring myself to look at his face, but I do. I wish I hadn't.

Bruises. Blood. _Tears._

The Boy of Steel is crying from pain, something he has never felt before.

This is a hell of a way for him to be welcomed to pain.

 _"_ _I got every pain cell in my body directly stimulated, and I got off easy,"_ I think to myself. _"Damn."_

The men who are holding me suddenly drop me, and I collapse. It takes me a moment to struggle to my knees, but I manage to get up.

We keep walking. As horrible as this is to see, I have to know where everybody is located for when we attempt to escape later. I'm hoping that at least I will be in an okay condition. If this is what Conner looks like, I can't imagine what's happening to the others.

And the members of the Team that don't have powers…

Luthor walks into the room that I'm standing in. "Mr. West, I feel the need to let you know that it is only the original five members of your Team and yourself that are still alive. The rest of them have been killed. LexCorp's partner is only interested in a few specifics - Kryptonian, Martian, Atlantean, and yourself, the speedster. The rest were unnecessary and were disposed of. As for Nightwing, who we now know is Mr. Grayson, and Ms. Crock… we kept them around for sentimentality, even though it is most likely that only one was needed."

I hope the others were at least allowed to die quickly. It is not a fate those of us alive will be granted.

"Luthor, I'm going to fucking kill you. I hope you know that."

"I do enjoy your sense of humor, Mr. West."

"I'm not joking."

"I'm sure you believe that."

I don't have the energy to keep fighting him, so I struggle along while he and the two men who were carrying me walk with me.

"Oh, Mr. West, I should also inform you that I am purposely showing you the location of each of your teammates for when you attempt to escape. I do not enjoy regular television, but watching this on a screen from the comfort of my home will surely bring me pleasure."

"Fuck you."

He chuckles, and I struggle on.

Then I see M'gann.

"Fuck." She's surrounded in a ring of fire, which since she's a Martian isn't exactly a surprise, but the effect is very, very real and I know it.

It gets worse, of course. Much, much, much worse.

There's blood. Too much blood. Way too much blood. It takes my pain-scorched mind a second to realize that her skin is green and not red and that this is what Lex Luthor has done to every single one of my teammates.

It slowly occurs to me that I've been hearing a painful screech this whole time, and that it's not the noise of some whirring machine. A scream like nothing I've ever heard is coming from the dying Martian in front of me.

Then I see the worst part.

I had been more focused on the men causing M'gann's bleeding. I hadn't seen the hooded man behind her.

Psimon stands over M'gann, hood on.

He's fighting a dying woman in mental combat, and she doesn't have anybody there to pull into her mind and help her.

I'm carried away, sickened by the high-pitched screams I keep hearing.

I throw up for the first time when I see Kaldur.

Similar to M'gann, he's trapped in a ring of fire, and also similar to M'gann, he's bleeding all over his body.

But it only gets worse from there.

Kaldur's gills have been cut and covered so that not only is the blood clogging his ability to breathe, he's being suffocated by whatever substance Luthor's men have applied to his gills.

But worst of all is the water sitting next to him.

I remember a Greek myth I once heard in history - a man who was trapped in Greek hell and given a starving hunger and unquenchable thirst, and he had water and food right next to him, but as soon as he got close to it, it disappeared.

I'm watching Kaldur relive that myth. His broken body reaches for the water, but he can't quite get to it, no matter how hard he tries.

My heart is breaking. My teammates are… destroyed.

But I haven't seen Dick or Artemis.

The two without powers.

The two who couldn't possibly handle abuse like this.

I crawl into the next room and scream.

Dick is dead.

The man who I thought would outlast us all, the protege of Batman, my best friend… he's dead.

Blood everywhere.

Limbs bent at unnatural angles.

Gray, clammy skin.

And the Joker himself standing over him with a crowbar, taking swing after swing after swing.

I want to get up and help, to do something, to do _anything_ , but I can't even walk, much less run.

Besides, I can't help a dead man.

I continue crawling, praying to every god that I've ever heard of that Artemis is alive.

My wish is granted. I wish it wasn't.

There is more blood on her than there is on anyone else, even the man whose skin is being cut with _Kryptonite._

Both of her arms and legs are broken. Her wrists are slit. Her Achilles tendons have been sliced.

Her face is swollen and bloody, her body beaten and bruised.

This is a fate I would only wish upon the man who has done this to her.

"A… Artemis…"

Her eyes, nearly swollen shut, slightly open. "W… Wally?"

"I'm… gonna… save… you…"

"It's… too… late…"

Lex enters the room and laughs.

"Well, Mr. West, you have seen the love of your life. I'm sure you'd like to do this to me about now, wouldn't you?"

"I'm… going… to… enjoy… watching… you… die…"

"Oh, I'm sure. Almost as much as I'll enjoy this." Luthor sounds as cold and calculating as ever.

He takes out a gun and shoots Artemis in the head.

I scream, and everything goes black.

 **I don't deserve review after how long I've made you all wait, but reviews are still cool.**

 **Are you cool?**

 **\- JT**


	5. All My Fault - Artemis

He's in the med bay.

All my fault.

Sometimes he's screaming. Sometimes he's shaking. Sometimes he's motionless.

All my fault.

I got careless. That's what it comes down to. If I had been ready... if I had done something, anything differently... maybe this wouldn't have happened.

All my fault.

He might not survive. There have been cases less severe than his that have caused deaths, and that was the first time those people had inhaled Scarecrow's hallucination toxin.

All my fault.

It's been almost a day now. I haven't left his side. Dick has been in often, Barry nearly as much. Nearly everybody in the entire League has stopped by.

All my fault.

Batman and Dick are off at the Batcave, trying to develop a vaccine, or at least something that can slow it down.

All my fault.

I look down at him. He's pale, shuddering from whatever horrible vision he is currently suffering from. The love of my life, and because of my carelessness, he's being tortured by his own mind.

All my fault.

"There was nothing you could have done, Artemis." I look up to see Conner in the doorway.

"But I could have! If I had been more careful, if I had... why did he have to be so fucking heroic? Why couldn't he have let it be me? Why did he have to give himself up?" I'm crying.

Conner shakes his head. "He's a hero, and he loves you. He'd do anything for you, including give up his own life, without a second thought."

I can't respond. I'm practically bawling.

Conner looks at Wally again. "Wherever he is in there, whatever he's dealing with, I bet you he's happy that he did what he did. He gave himself up, but he saved you, and I believe that that's what matters to him."

I shake my head in disbelief. "I'm not worth that. I'm not worth dying for or being tortured for."

"He thinks you are. So do I, but that's just as a teammate. What Wally feels for you is far, far stronger than what any of us feel. You know that. He's in love with you. Love makes people do crazy things."

I wipe away tears. "How... what if he dies, Conner? What if I have to live the rest of my life knowing that the only person I'll ever love is dead because of me?"

Conner shakes his head. "Wally's a fighter. He's going to make it, and you're going to be the first thing he sees when he wakes up."

He looks at the clock. "It's almost midnight, Artemis. Get some sleep." He walks out of the room, my whisper of gratitude going unheard, or at least unacknowledged.

I lay my head down next to Wally, who's gone quiet, at least for the moment. The sound of his heart monitor beeping lulls me to sleep.

* * *

 _"I'm home!" He walks in, smiling, and I smile back at him._

 _"Hey, Beautiful. How was your day?" All this time, and I haven't tired of hearing him call me that._

 _"It was tiring, but I survived. How was yours?" My Stanford classes start earlier in the morning than his, but his end later._

 _He shrugs. "Pretty similar to that, I guess. Are you busy tonight?"_

 _I shake my head. "No, why?"_

 _He grins. "You are now. We're going out. Trust me, it'll be fun."_

 _I raise an eyebrow. "You almost sound like you've planned something."_

 _He grins again. "Can't a guy surprise his beautiful girlfriend once in a while?"_

 _I laugh. "He certainly can."_

 _The restaurant he ends up taking me to is gorgeous, but what's truly amazing is afterwards._

 _We're sitting on the roof of our Palo Alto apartment, looking up at the stars and holding hands._

 _And then he turns to me._

 _"I, um, have something else planned."_

 _I raise an eyebrow. "And what might that be?"_

 _He smiles sheepishly. "Stand up for a second." He gets up and offers his hand, pulling me up to my feet._

 _"Wally, what are you doing?" I'm excited, but confused._

 _He fumbles with something in his pocket... and drops to a knee._

 _"Artemis Crock, would you make me the happiest man in the world?" He opens the box he's pulled out of his pocket... to reveal an engagement ring._

 _I gasp. "Oh, Wally... yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!"_

 _We kiss, the moon shines down on us, and everything is perfect._

* * *

I wake up just as Kaldur walks in. 3:12 AM.

"Hello, Artemis. How are you? And how is he?"

"He's been quiet for the last couple of hours. I've been asleep."

"That is good. You needed rest, and his being quiet is a good sign. His vitals still read normal."

I look up at him hopefully. "Do you think it might be beginning to filter out of his system?"

Kaldur shakes his head. "It is not impossible, but I cannot say. I have not had any experience with Scarecrow's toxin, and I do not know how long this may take. Wally will make it through this, though. I am confident in that."

"How can you be so sure? I... Kaldur, it's my fault. He's like this because of me." I wipe away a tear. I'm no crier, or at least I wasn't, but this is diffferent. Wally makes me feel things and do things I never would have felt or done otherwise.

"Artemis, you cannot think like that. It could easily have been any one of us."

"But it wasn't! It was me! Wally might die and it's all my fucking fault, Kaldur!"

"He is going to be okay. And when he wakes up, you are going to be the first one to see him. I promise that everything is going to be just fine. Artemis... you cannot allow yourself to shoulder the blame for this. There is nothing you could have done, nothing any of us could have done."

I nod, but my heart isn't in it.

All my fault.

He leaves wordlessly as I sit, staring at the love of my life as he silently endures unimaginable pain, until I once again fall asleep.

All my fault.

* * *

 _"I'm home, babe!"_

 _I kiss my husband as he walks in the door. "Hey, honey. How was your day?"_

 _He smiles. "It was decent, actually. I got a couple of new leads on the case I've been working. How was yours?"_

 _I smile back. "Awesome, babe! And it was fine, I guess. Some low-life crook tried to make fun of me for being a female cop and I broke half his ribcage."_

 _He shakes his head and grins. "That's my girl. Absolutely terrifying but absolutely perfect."_

 _I kiss him again. "Do I tell you often enough how much I love you?"_

 _He laughs and kisses me back. "It never hurts to hear it more. I love you too, by the way. Do you have anything to do tonight?"_

 _I take a moment to ponder the question. "No, I'm off tonight. Do you?"_

 _His eyes light up as he hears my answer. "I do now." He picks me up and speeds over to the couch, turning on the TV after he puts me down._

 _It only takes him a few seconds to find what he wants, and I laugh. "The Princess Bride? Again? Haven't you seen this movie at least twenty times?"_

 _He laughs. "I'll stop watching it when it stops being an incredible movie."_

 _He cuddles me on the couch as the movie starts, and I smile as I realize for the millionth time that I have the best husband in the entire world._

 _I don't know exactly when I fall asleep, but waking up next to him in bed is the greatest feeling I can imagine._

* * *

I wake up again. Wally has remained silent, which I guess is a good sign.

A tear rolls down my cheek as I take the hand of my unmoving speedster.

"Don't take my dreams away from me, Wally. Stay alive. And if you do stay alive, ask me to marry you. I don't need a ring, or any dramatics. Ask me to marry you so that I never have to leave you again."

"I love you, Wally West. I love you more than anything else in the world."

 **A new chapter? Crazy, I know.**

 **It may be the last thing I ever post on this site. I may post something tomorrow. For now, I hope you enjoy this. Make sure to leave a review!**

 **\- JT**


End file.
